Recently, mobile phones have appeared on the market having a liquid crystal display (hereinafter referred to as an “LCD”) and a touch panel 5 placed upon it. The liquid crystal display displays an image including a plurality of keys, where touch panel 5 detects an indication for one of the keys and receives the input of a number or a character (see Patent Document 1, for example). In such a mobile phone, inputting alphabet, hiragana or katakana involves allocating a plurality of characters to a key and receiving the input of one of the characters depending on the number of times the key is depressed consecutively.
While touch panel 5 is capable of detecting a position indicated, if an operation involving a plurality of indications in one and the same position is to be detected by touch panel 5, the user must perform two operations: touching touch panel 5 with a finger and then lifting the finger off the panel each time the key is depressed. As a result, operations can be troublesome.    [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-92441